This is the second case since mid-July. The health authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced Tuesday, July 30, to have registered a new case of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Goma, a large city in the east of the country, located on the border with Rwanda and populated by about two millions of inhabitants. A first case was discovered on 14 July, almost a year after the outbreak was declared in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri on 1 August 2018.
"I have just been informed of a case of Ebola virus disease in Goma," Dr Aruna Abedi, coordinator of the Ebola response in North Kivu province, told AFP. capital city.
"It was a gentleman who came from Mongbwalu and was followed in Bunia (Ituri), he fled our response teams and is in Goma," he said.
"Not related to the first case"
In an official statement, signed by Congolese professor and expert Jean-Jacques Muyembe, it is noted, "our teams of the response have just detected and isolate a second case on July 30, 2019, and a priori unrelated to the first case" .
According to this document, the patient "arrived in Goma since July 13, 2019 from a mining area in the province of Ituri, without signs of illness, and developed the first signs on July 22, 2019".
"The patient is currently at the Goma Ebola Treatment Center for treatment," said the statement, which was jointly signed by Nzanzu Kasivita Carly, Governor of North Kivu Province.
Enhanced surveillance
The two Congolese officials called on the population to collaborate with the teams of the response. They also assured "neighboring countries that all measures are being taken to strengthen surveillance at points of entry and sanitary control".
The tenth Ebola epidemic in DR Congo, elevated to a global emergency, affects the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri where it has already killed 1,790 people, according to the latest figures released Tuesday.
With AFP